Breast-Feeding a Man in Islam

Is it acceptable in Islam for a woman to breast-feed a
man then stay with him legally in one room?

The answer to this question makes the difference between true
Muslims who faithfully follow the footsteps of Mohammed and the
hypocrites who modify their religion to follow their desires. Allah
described them as such in the Quran: Q.28: 50… they only follow
their own desires, and who is more astray than one who follow his
own desires…

The issue of breast-feeding men is currently a hot topic in Egypt
and has been the focus of the media in many Middle Eastern
countries. It all started when Dr. Izzat Attya who is the head of
the department of Hadith in Al-Azhar, which is the world’s most
prestigious Islamic University, issued a fatwa, or religious
opinion. The fatwa declared that, it is legitimate for a working
Muslim woman to breast-feed her male colleague to avoid the sin of
‘khulwa’ (staying with a stranger in one room). Similar fatwas had
been issued in the past by many sheikhs in many Middle-Eastern
countries, but this is the first time it comes from a high level
academic of Al-Azhar.

A Modern Islamic problem, an old solution

The Problem:

Dr. Attya noticed that Muslim women
frequently work with men in the same offices, with the inevitable
possibility that a woman may find herself sitting alone in the same
room with one or more of her male colleagues, which, in Islam, is a
grave sin. Some of these women are deeply religious, but they need
to work. Both the state and the society are forcing these women to
sin without doing anything about it.

The erudite scholar of Al-Azhar, Dr. Attya was asked about the
previous fatwas quoting a sahih (= authentic) hadith. His answer was
that the quoted hadith is certainly accurate and, if necessary, a
Muslim woman is allowed to follow the example set by the prophet.

We may have different opinions about Al-Azhar and the integrity
or political affiliation of its staff, but there is one thing about
this institute that remains beyond doubt: its sheikhs (ulama) are
second to none in their knowledge about sunni Islam. All other
Islamic universities in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia,
rely on Al-Azhar for academic support. It can be argued that Dr.
Izzat Attya is probably the most learned man in the speciality the
science of ahadith. He knows every nuance about the texts of the
ahadith, their isnad (chain of narrators) and their degree of
accuracy. When he says something about ahadith, we better believe
him.

Dr. Attya proposed an Islamic solution that came directly from
the prophet. In the early days of Islam, Muslim women faced a
similar problem and the prophet fixed it immediately.

It all started when Mohammed decided to marry Zainab, the
beautiful wife of Zaid, his adopted son, which was impossible under
the prevailing laws of Arabia. Mohammed, however, always had under
his sleeve the magical trick called the Quran. He ‘revealed’ some
verses renouncing the practice of adoption as nonsense and ordered
Zaid to divorce his wife, thereby clearing the way for Mohammed to
marry her. The plan worked well for Mohammed but created problems
for many others.

Abu Huthayfa and his wife Sahla, had an adopted son (a freed
slave) called Salim, who used to work and live in the house freely.
As Salim was like a son to her, Sahla used to rely on him to help in
the housework. She could stay with him in the same room without
having to cover herself from his looks. When Mohammed cancelled the
principle of adoption, Salim became a stranger in the house and
could no longer be alone with Sahla, Abu Huthayfa’s wife. The Lady
complained to Mohammed who immediately provided her with a genius
solution- he asked her to breast-feed Salim, after which she would
again be allowed to keep him as a son with her in the house. She
said: ‘but Salim is a man and has a beard!’ Mohammed smiled to her
and said ‘I know that’.

Mohammed’s wife, Aysha, was very happy to hear the news because
she also had problems in allowing men in her house. The new ruling
came handy particularly after Mohammed’s death because Aysha needed
more flexibility in meeting and talking to men about Islam. Aysha
was a strong advocate of this practice; she encouraged the daughters
of her sisters and the daughters of her brethren to breast-feed
those men whom she (Aysha) wished to allow in her home.

Dr. Attya’s vision is that women are better off making use of
this authorization given by Mohammed and breast-feed their male
colleagues to avoid the sin of ‘khulwa’ (staying alone with a
stranger).

The Muslims Response:

Muslims are divided about this fatwa;

Minority of them (true Muslims) completely agree with the fatwa
for an obvious reason; it has a precedence in Islam that happened
during the time of Mohammed. The issue of whether this is morally
acceptable or not has no relevance, simply because Allah’s wish
overrides man’s wish. Allah says in the Quran

Q.33:36. It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a
matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any
option about their decision…

Some of these Muslims attempted to soften the impact of the fatwa
on the shocked Muslim community in various ways. Some expressed
reservations about the way the fatwa was presented to the public
while others tried to explain that breast-feeding doesn’t
necessarily imply direct contact between a man and a woman. They
suggested that a woman could collect her milk in a cup and offer it
to a male colleague! This group of Muslims try to reform Islam in
their own way, in doing so they forget that women do not always
produce milk.

With anger and embarrassment, the majority of Muslims, however,
reject the fatwa. They claim that Mohammed could have never allowed
something like that. Needless to say this group of Muslims never
heard of the above story before. I do not blame them, because, as a
Muslim I myself heard of it only in my later years. Even then, I
assumed the hadith was a weak one, which is why I never considered
using it as a credible proof of the falsity of Islam.

But the hadith is a credible one, and has been reported by sahih
books like Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah. Moreover,
this hadith has been thoroughly investigated by a number of highly
revered Islamic scholars like Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Hazm and Al Albani.
Denying a hadith with such strength would be like denying the
existence of main Islamic events like fasting and prayers.

Our Response

The Islamic establishment deliberately and consistently hide the
ugly face of Islam. The majority of Muslims do not know the
magnitude of Mohammed’s violations of the accepted Arabic traditions
and moralities. Without much qualm, Mohammed even violated his own
Islamic laws to suit his own agenda. Starting from childhood,
Muslims are brainwashed to see a polished side of Islam. All of
Mohammed’s atrocities, invasions, assassinations and mass murders
are carefully presented as justified acts of self-defence against
the enemies of Allah. Some of Mohammed’s absurdities, like the
hadith above, are deliberately kept in the dark out of reach of
ordinary Muslims.

Following the media and public outrage, Al-Azhar had to explain
its position to Millions of Muslims and Dr. Attya was forced to
withdraw his fatwa. In his statement, he said he only echoed the
opinions expressed by early highly regarded Islamic scholars, but
after extensive consultations with Muslim scholars, he now believed
the permission to breast feed an adult was an exception given only
to Abu Huthayfa’s wife to solve an exceptional problem, but not to
other Muslims. The statement fails to explain what was so
exceptional about Abu Huthayfa’s case and why Aysha encouraged it.

Such a U-turn relieved the Islamic community and the Arab media
because, as they put it, the fatwa did not blend well with the high
morality and logic known to be associated with Islam. It is
laughable that Muslims find it difficult to believe that Mohammed
women to breast feed men, but have no problem at all in believing
him when he claimed he spent the night with Allah and all his
prophets and toured the whole universe. Strange indeed is the
Islamic mindset!!

In a surprising development, two senior Saudi clerics today said
that Saudi Arabia’s women should give their breast milk to male
colleagues and acquaintances in order to safeguard the Islamic law
that forbids mixing between the sexes. The clerics, however, failed
to reach an agreement among each other on how the milk should be
conveyed.

Recently a fatwa had been issued in the country about adult
breast-feeding to establish "maternal relations" and preclude the
possibility of sexual contact. The fatwa has already generated
enough debates and it is likely that the debate over such explicit
topics may force the Saudi government to introduce stricter
regulations about how and when fatwas should be issued.

Sheikh Al Obeikan, an adviser to the royal court and consultant
to the Ministry of Justice, had recently said that women who come
into regular contact with men, who are not their relatives, should
give them their breast milk in order to make them their relatives.

"The man should take the milk, but not directly from the breast
of the woman. He should drink it and then becomes a relative of the
family, a fact that allows him to come in contact with the women
without breaking Islam's rules about mixing," Al Obeikan said,
according to Gulf News. "

Obeikan’s remarks were followed by an announcement by another
powerful Saudi cleric Abi Ishaq Al Huwaini, who asked women to allow
the men to suckle the milk directly from their breast.